I just bought a little old book at the used bookstore that is by my estimation (no publisher’s date), 115 years old. I Googled the publisher’s name and address that was printed on the flyleaf and it came up as an 1890-1891 edition. I don’t know whether I should read it or hermetically seal it! What a fun things to find for only six dollars! Ever find anything neat like that?
What book is it?
Actually, I found something exactly like that.
I have an edition of Leaves Of Grass by Walt Whitman published in 1900 by H.M. Caldwell Co. It’s got a red hardcover and is approx. 5"x4". The cover is leather and cardboard with gold emobossed lettering. I found it at a garage sale and paid $.25 for it.
I’ve got a first edition, 1871, of Brett Harte’s Condensed Novels, a collection of literary parodies.
HC, Acceptable condition, original gold lettering clearly readable on the spine, coner foxed at corners.
$10, from somebody online, who sold it as “just as good as a recent copy”. :smack: 
The Crown of Wild Olive, by John Ruskin. It’s nicely pocket sized so one could carry it around in one’s coat - maybe a university edition?
Yes! My wife and I found a house that is somewhere around 165 years old and we close on friday. All we know agewise is that it was built “in the 1840s”, which is pretty old for Wisconsin. On the interior you can see the original enormous cedar logs that made up the log cabin and the axe marks from squaring the logs. Pretty cool indeed!
As with coins, mere age of a book, even in good condition, does not necessarily imply great value. I routinely used to check out books from the 18th and 19th centuries from my university library. I’m sure I even checked out one from the 1600s at one point, and I only did this to placate my curiosity about something. Though a student, I wasn’t receiving any special treatment, and these books were in open stacks with most of the other material.
I worked in a really great used book store for several years. We had many books that were over 100 years old. Some of them were in very nice condition, since books were typically well-made in ages past.
Most old books are not worth much, but every now and then, when we bought large lots of books at estate sales and such, we’d come across something that was considered “collectible.” The Internet has made it much easier for everyone to check on the possible value of old books, so these days there are fewer collectible “finds” being sold for a pittance.
Ffffftttt 
The pub just over the bridge from here is from ‘at least the fifteenth century’. My place is early 1840s, and not particularly new 
I know, I know. We have a much more limited history over here in the New World. I worked with a diesel engineer from Norway a few years ago. He had some pictures of his home and he had a barn that was built in the 1500s. It didn’t seem remarkable to him, but there are no buildings in this country from the 1500s that I am aware of.